Military Aims Research Articles

Putting the Apocalyptic Jesus to the Sword: Why Were Jesus’s Disciples Armed?

The claim that the historical Jesus was a violent revolutionary has seen a revival in recent years with the work of Dale Martin and Fernando Bermejo-Rubio. Central to their case is the datum that Jesus’s disciples were armed at the time of his arrest in anticipation of their active participation in an end-time battle. However, whilst it can be established that it is likely that the disciples did carry bladed implements that could be used as weapons, when the literary and material-cultural evidence is scrutinised more closely, it is unreasonable to infer that these were intended to be used for apocalyptic ends or that the disciples or anyone else would see them as evidence of military intent.

Prospects for China's Maritime Strategy in the Indian Ocean

Prospects for China's Maritime Strategy in the Indian Ocean Hu Bo (bio) There is much exaggerated speculation about China's military strategy in the Indian Ocean, including the so-called string of pearls, and military intentions for the Belt and Road Initiative. Before analyzing China's Indian Ocean strategy over the next ten to fifteen years, it is first useful to focus on some general development trends of sea power rather than speculation about China's intentions. The Dominance of Sea Denial Today, we are living in a period of sea-denial dominance. Because maritime hegemony is so expensive to gain and sustain in the 21st century, no powers, including the United States and China, can have the capacity and bear the cost. Compared with sea control, sea denial is a much more realistic and cheaper goal. Definitions of sea control and sea denial vary according to different perspectives, and the two concepts are usually intertwined. Nonetheless, from a strategic perspective, we may define sea control as assuring one's own use of the sea and denying its use to the rivals in wartime. Sea denial, by contrast, can be defined as preventing adversaries from using the sea. Sea control means the desire to gain maritime dominance, whereas sea denial entails a balance of power. The 2020 version of the U.S. Navy's Naval Doctrine Publication 1 defines sea denial as an "offensive, cost-imposing approach that can be applied when it is impossible or unnecessary to establish sea control."1 Achieving sea control has always been more difficult than sea denial because the former is highly dependent on a country's capacity to project air and naval power, while the latter does not require massive power projection and intense joint operations. Moreover, today's task of sea control includes joint operations in all domains—land, sea, air, space, [End Page 18] and cyber—and the vulnerability of any domain may mean that the strategy fails. What makes sea denial different now from the past is the rapid improvement in sensor, guidance, and communication technology in recent decades and new ways of implementing strategies that such technology creates.2 Therefore, states are increasingly able to threaten an opponent's ships at long range from relatively safer and cheaper land-based aircraft and missile batteries—a range of capabilities termed anti-access/area-denial by U.S. military planners.3 Thus, with heightened interdependence of great powers and multiple paths of military technology, maritime predominance is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, and perhaps will even be impossible in the future. However, for great powers, it is progressively simpler to ensure the other side's fleet cannot sail unhindered if needed. In this regard, most waters of the world are in the contested "no man's sea."4 Usually, great powers enjoy an advantage in their near seas and must accept others' advantages elsewhere. The United States may be the only exception based on its status as a superpower and its alliance system. However, even the United States is finding it harder to maintain its edge, especially in the western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Arctic. China's Interests in the Indian Ocean China is a power with a relatively unfavorable marine geography, and it has no formal military ally around the Indian Ocean. No matter how China rises, it would be difficult for the country to wield dominant sea power in the Indian Ocean region as long as the United States and India make no major strategic mistakes nor suffer a sharp decline in national power. In the Indian Ocean, China is confronted with a similar anti-access dilemma and the disadvantage of distance that the United States faces in East Asian waters. Therefore, China can only operate in the ocean as a relatively weak sea power, or perhaps by using a "fleet in being" strategy, which means maintaining an effective but inferior military presence so as to deter and [End Page 19] check the stronger sea power from obtaining absolute command of the sea and violating its own vital interests.5 At present and for the foreseeable future, China's most important interest in the Indian Ocean is to...

An overview of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Implications in geo-strategy and geo-politics

China is a very interesting country, and the entire world is looking at it. This is not only because of its spectacular rise in the world stage and the fact that it has become one of the largest markets in the world. China has become a superpower economically as well as militarily. Simultaneously it has a penchant for doing things differently – from the established norms and practices, as followed primarily by the West. It is likely that China will be in a position to challenge USA shortly as the number one power in the world. It is also likely that China will soon be influencing world events in a major way. These are the primary reasons for undergoing this study. The specific objective is to understand in detail one of the grandest and most ambitious schemes floated by any country in modern times - that of the Belt and Road Initiative by China. The author is sure that this project will have a very substantial impact on the strategies and politics of the entire world. The originality of this study is that it takes a macro-view of the entire initiative and dissects the implications for each major region of the entire world - in terms of strategy as well as politics. It wishes to connect Asia and Europe and also bring Africa into the project and thus form a unified market known as Afro-Eurasia. China, also known as PRC (People’s Republic of China), has developed tremendously in the past few decades and has now spare capacities as well as resources. So, it has initiated the project BRI wherein they are giving loans to underdeveloped countries to build infrastructure of these nations. There are two primary routes which PRC aims to develop. One of them is the land route called the BELT, which connects Europe to China over land. The other is the maritime route through the oceans which again connects the Eastern parts of China right up to Europe – and including Africa in between. The countries along these routes are being helped by China to develop their infrastructure like railways or seaports so that they may also emerge as modern logistics and distribution hubs for transporting goods between China and Europe. PRC thus ensures that it receives its continuous supply of energy requirements and other commodities for consumption. It will also be able to increase its exports right up to Western Europe through these routes which will save them a lot of time and costs also. Some nations are however skeptical about the real intentions of China. These countries think that China is emerging as a major superpower of the world and one day, it might want to dominate this part of the world entirely. Whether China has military intentions or not will be clear sometime later. As of today, China claims that its intentions are completely peaceful.

Retaining Women Air Force Officers: Work, Family, Career Satisfaction, and Intentions

Despite efforts to improve women’s military representation, mid-career female officers attrit at twice the rate of male peers. Research and theory suggest women’s turnover is influenced by family life including marriage and parenthood. But previous research has grouped women together, failing to extrapolate which factors influence retention of women with different family types. Thus, this study explored a single career point (mid-career) at different family intersections (married, unmarried, with, and without children) to elucidate work and family factors associated with female officers’ retention decisions. Using 2011 Air Force survey data ( n = 1,309), regression models tested four hypotheses regarding work and family factors associated with different subgroups’ military life satisfaction and career intentions. Findings indicate that after accounting for satisfaction, work factors were insignificant for all subgroups, but family factors (as hypothesized) were significantly associated with married women’s career intentions. Results suggest that policies targeting family support/satisfaction may improve retention.

MILITARY AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES IN PROVINCE OF BOSNIA (1700-1715)

<p class="ql-align-justify">In the present study, actions taken by Ottomans to establish the state order in the province of Bosnia following the signing of the treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, to ensure the return of the community of expatriates to the province, and to provide the substructure necessary for daily life and reconstruction of the province were discussed. The first one of the actions taken in the province is the reinforcement of castles considering the possibility of an outbreak of another war and aiming to strengthen the province’s defense. Another action performed with the military intent was the examination of personnel who were working at castles, redoubts, and towers, deserted or did not do their military service. Castles, redoubts, and towers that had been placed on important water beds in the province of Bosnia and had great importance in city’s defense were overhauled. In addition, social buildings such as mosques, caravansaries, and bridges destroyed or demolished during the war were reconstructed to ensure the return of the people who had been obliged to abandon the province of Bosnia and to enable them to spend their daily life. In the study, the cost of these actions performed between the years of 1700 and 1715 to the empire, difficulties experienced and solutions devised to the problems were evaluated.&nbsp;

Pakistan: The state of liberal democracy

2017 was the year of the Panama case. That one case overshadowed all the business in the Apex Court and has shaped public perception of the Court’s role. Just as in the previous electoral cycle, the Supreme Court has disqualified and dismissed a prime minister from office in the year leading up to the messy business of elections. Just as during the tenure of former Chief Justice Chaudhry, the Court has ended up in an overt tussle with a government that is determined to present itself as a victim of a “judicial coup.” The disqualification of the head of the largest political party in Pakistan in the run-up to an election has also raised anxieties about of a political court acting in collusion with the country’s powerful military intent on destabilizing the transitional democratic system. The Panama case marks the Court’s return to the center of the political stage after a brief hiatus, a position it seems likely to occupy in the foreseeable future. The Supreme Court’s political role is not a recent development. Over the last three decades, the Supreme Court has evolved from a peripheral state institution to a key player mediating the balance of powers in a deeply divided and politically fragmented polity. However, the Court’s exercise of its judicial review jurisdiction appears to be “promiscuous” rather than principled. Despite the larger claims, the superior courts appear to have become “institutions of governance” and judicial review the mode of a “delicate and political process of balancing competing values and political aspirations” . . . providing “a workable modus vivendi” which in turn enables the courts to claim a seat at the table of high politics.

Mechanics of Mass Murder: A Case for Understanding the Indonesian Killings as Genocide

ABSTRACTThis article presents an overview of new evidence recovered from the former Indonesian Intelligence Agency’s archives in Banda Aceh that is able to prove, for the first time, military agency behind the 1965–66 killings in Indonesia. The military leadership, these documents show, initiated and implemented the killings as part of a coordinated national campaign. This campaign was described by the military leadership as an “annihilation operation” and was implemented with the stated intention to “annihilate to the roots” the military’s major political rival, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). This new evidence fundamentally changes what it is now possible to know about the 1965–66 killings, specifically as regards the question of military intent. Likewise, the process by which the military’s target group was identified and targeted for destruction can now be understood using the military’s own accounts of how this process occurred. This article argues that this new evidence strengthens the argument, advanced by genocide scholars since the early 1980s, that the 1965–66 killings should be understood as a case of genocide.

Kick the Door Down with AirSea Battle…Then What?

Books Reviewed: Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate over US Military Strategy in Asia. By Aaron L. Friedberg Fire on Water: China, America and Future of Pacific By Robert Haddick Anti-Access Warfare: Countering A2/AD Strategies By Sam J. Tangredi. Power projection is a stated aim of our armed forces. It is distillation of much of what our armed services exist to do. We vaunt our ability to intervene powerfully almost anywhere we choose to and win once we are there. Power on that scale is quintessentially American. Its roots, however, can be found in Antiquity. What, after all, were Greeks doing at gates of Troy but projecting power? Yet before Industrial Revolution power could only be projected on a small scale. Afterwards power projection on a large scale became possible and flowered in response to demands of Western imperialism. As Aaron Friedberg noted in an earlier book, from a military perspective the most important product (of Industrial Revolution) was a marked improvement in ability of European states to project and maintain military power far from their own frontiers. (1) The United States is inheritor of that experience. AirSea Battle (ASB), now subsumed into wider Joint Operational Access Concept, is latest tool for projecting US power. To be accurate, ASB is an concept not necessarily an invasive one. It is designed to take down an enemy's defense ensuring access we have enjoyed since 1945 to threaten invasion or destruction of critical infrastructure in pursuit of our national objectives continues. The US Navy proclaims Alfred Thayer Mahan to be its defining strategic thinker. However, in its pursuit of power projection it is acting not as his disciple but as disciple of his near contemporary, Sir Julian Corbett, architect of what became known subsequently as British Way of War. Corbett viewed what we would now call access operations as acme of naval operations; ability to project power around an opponent's periphery wounding, confusing and weakening him preparatory to landing final and mortal blow; which may very well also arrive by sea as America was poised to do against Japan in summer of 1945. Although Mahan and Corbett agreed broadly on most aspects of naval practice, they differed sharply on benefit of amphibious operations. Mahan, who had a much more insightful view of critical economic dimension of maritime power than Corbett, saw what we now call power projection as highly risky and a wasteful distraction from Navy's primary purpose of sea command. Given power projection's deep roots in history and military thought, most accounts of ASB, when they suggest it is a new response to a new problem are wrong, or at best only right in part. Troy may have failed to keep Greeks at bay but as Sam J. Tangredi shows, anti-access strategies were practiced as far back as wars between ancient Greece and Persia. However, in line with its supreme industrial power and expansionist ideology, most relevant precursors are all American, starting perhaps most obviously with determination to maintain access to Pacific in face of Japan's rise after World War I. That rise lead Marine colonel Pete Ellis to undertake his pioneering studies and analyses of island landing grounds and bases in early 1920s. The second major criticism of ASB--that it includes attacks against homeland of a nuclear adversary and therefore takes unprecedented escalatory risks--is also misplaced. It is lineal descendent of Navy thinking going back to Admiral Forrest Sherman's post-World War II naval strategy, a strategic formulation that led to Maritime Strategy of 1980s which is still hailed as most complete statement of offensive military intent ever laid down by this country's navy; one which by threatening Soviet homeland and its nuclear deterrent anticipated possibility of a nuclear exchange. …

The Political Foundations of Economic Crises and the Economic Foundations of Political Crises; The Intermingling Relationship: Turkish Case 1950–2002

The political foundations of economic and financial crises have been examined solely vis-a-vis populist macroeconomic policies, but the political consequences of such economic crises have seldom been discussed in the literature. There have been ten notable political crises and six major economic crises in the last half-century of Turkish history. All political crises in Turkey involved a priori economic slowdown. Some of them even followed economic crises, especially sharp devaluations. Secondly, all political crises had social implications, as they all occurred as a result of severe welfare losses of the civilian and military bureaucracy due to inflation. Thirdly, the nature of political crises has recently changed, as they no longer involve overt military interventions. On the contrary, consecutive coups have enhanced the deepening of democracy, as there is a stronger embrace of civil democracy and hostility against the military intentions by the society. Our research demonstrates that all economic crises have occurred during populist right-wing governments and involved budget deficit problems, while only some of them also involved foreign debt crises. Naturally, all economic crises had political consequences.

A spy's paradise? German espionage in the Netherlands, 1914–1918

During the First World War The Netherlands were extremely important for espionage by the warring states. They used the neutral territory as spring-board for infiltration and propaganda, but they were interested in Holland itself too. This article deals with German espionage related to The Netherlands. German agents were active both to gather information on the Entente and to know more about the Dutch defence and the Dutch political and military intentions. The Dutch Military Intelligence used the police to observe and stay in touch with foreign spies. Through these channels information was exchanged, as it was also in Dutch interest to inform the warring states that the country would never choose sides and their defence was credible. Also, the Dutch wanted to avoid possible dangerous political complications as a result of foreign activities on their soil.

Involving the elephant: technical isolation and the role of India in a possible solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis

Apart from North Korea, no state's nuclear program in the twenty-first century has raised more concern to international security than Iran's. While Iran insists that its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purpose in line with Article IV of non-proliferation treaty, the USA and its allies insist that Iran has military intentions and called for sanctions. The failure of sanctions to deter Iran from its nuclear agenda had made many scholars and policy-makers call for a preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Situated within this debate, this paper positions itself as an antagonist to the preemptive airstrike option and argues that involving India in a possible nuclear “iron curtain” against Iran – a move known as technical isolation – remains the best option to the current nuclear crises.

Italy and Albania: Financial Relations in the Fascist Period by Alessandro Roselli , I. B. Tauris (review)

REVIEWS 769 Roselli, Alessandro. ItalyandAlbania:FinancialRelations intheFascistPeriod. I. B. Tauris,London and New York,2006. xxviii+ 209 pp. Notes.Tables. Figures. Appendices. Bibliographical references. Index.£45.50. Alessandro Roselli' s bookoffers a scrupulous analysis offinancial relations between ItalyandAlbaniainthe1920sand 1930sup to 1943.However,italso providesa largerhistorical contextof the economicrelations betweenthe twocountries, stretching fromthebeginning ofthetwentieth century to the resolution ofthe'goldproblem'in 1998. The bookconsists ofelevenchapters, threeappendices, a foreword written by Professor Michael Kaser, and a prefaceby the author.Rich in figures and tables,it also providesa chronology of the main politicaleventsand economicdevelopments inAlbaniaanditsrelations withItalyduring 1912-98. This valuable inventory is completedwith a record of Albanian Prime Ministersand Italian and Britishdiplomaticenvoysto Albania during I9Ï3-43Rosellistarts by presenting a pictureof the economicrelations between Albaniaand Italyduringthefirst twodecades ofthetwentieth century. He pointsout thatItalyhad a bettertradebalance thanAustria-Hungary with thearea thatin 1912 enteredindependent Albania. Politicalturbulences in Albaniaand theclashwithinterests ofBritish oil companiesand Britain itself preventedItaly fromconductingan activepolicyin Albania in the first halfofthe 1920s.RosellianalysestheLeague ofNations'custodyoverthe economicsituation ofAlbania.He analysestheactivity ofthespecialenvoy oftheLeagueanddescribes indetailthemainthemes oftheinfluential report, preparedon behalfoftheLeague byProfessor Calmés,on theeconomicand financial situation inAlbania,and itsprospects forfuture development. Rosellifocuses especially on theactivities oftwoinstitutions, whichgavea strong impetus to theItalianpresenceinAlbania.The first was theNational BankofAlbania,formed and basedinRome witha majority ofItalianshareholding capital. The secondwas'SocietàperloSvilupoEconomicodell'Albania' (The CompanyforEconomicDevelopmentin Albania),or SVEA, whose mainrolewas theissuing and management ofa loan of50 million Albanian gold francsto the Albanian government. This led to closerpoliticalties betweenItalyand Albania,whichmaterialized withthesigning oftheTact ofFriendship and Security' inNovember1926,and ofthe'Defensive Alliance Treaty'a yearlater. Roselliprovesthatthestability oftheAlbanianmonetary system, a gold exchangestandard regime, waspossibleonlydue totheinflow ofcapitalfrom Italy,whichcounterbalanced the continuous tradedeficit betweenthe two countries. In thiscontexthe discussesthe positionof the National Bank ofAlbaniaand arguesthatit was autonomousto thesame extentas other monetary and financial institutions in FascistItalywere independent from theFascistauthorities. For theauthor,theactivity oftheNationalBank of Albaniaand ofSVEA provesonce againtheemphasis thatMussolini puton technocrats as obedientservants of the politicaland military aims of the state. 770 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2010 The lack of reflection of the capitalinvestedin Albania by the Italian government in the trade balance betweenthe two countriesis seen by Rosellias an important impulsethatpushedRome towards military actionin April1939.The changesinthemonetary system ofAlbaniaand theestablishmentof a fixedexchangerateof theAlbaniangoldenfranconlywiththe Italianlira,i.e. the formation of the 'lira area', and the growth of Italian exportsbroughtthe trade balance back into surplusforItaly. However, Rosellipointsoutsthatthisperiod£saw theFascistregime beingmoreheavyhandedin itscontrol ofthebanking system inAlbania5. RoselliconcludesthatItalywas hugelyinvolvedfinancially in Albania's economicdevelopment intheinterwar period.However, thiscontribution was dependenton military intentions and fieldslikehealthcare and education wereneglected. A by-product ofthisactivity wastheproblem ofthe'Albanian gold',i.e. thegold reserveof theNationalBank ofAlbania,lootedby the Germansin 1943,and depositedafter1945in theBank ofEngland.Roselli offers a thorough accountofthiscontroversial issuethatdefined therelations betweenAlbania, Italy and the UK duringthe post-WorldWar Two period. Roselli'sbook is a valuablesourceof data and an inspiring accountfor scholarsand specialists who deal withthe history of modernAlbania and theeconomichistory oftheBalkans.The authorfirmly concentrates on financial and economicissues,referring to othercomplementary workswhen a largerhistorical context is required, whichmaypose difficulties to a nonspecialized reader. In general,though,Roselli's studyis a noteworthy scholarly achievement. UCL SSEES RlGELS HaLILI Werth, Nicolas. Cannibal Island: Deathina Siberian Gulag. Witha foreword by Jan T. Gross.TranslatedfromtheFrenchby StevenRendali.Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity.PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, NJand Oxford,2007.xxi + 223 pp. Glossary. Maps. Notes. $24.95:£14.95. Although deathisno stranger to Stalin'sSovietUnion,and thetermGulag, coinedbyAlexander Solzhenitsyn inhisGulag Archipelago, iswidely known, the present bookbyNicolasWerth,originally publishedin Frenchin 2006,is a shocking account.The centreofWerth'sgripping and gruesome story ofthe Gulag,looselydefined, is theNazino affair: in 1933thousands ofdeportees from theEuropeanpartoftheSovietUnionweredumpedon an uninhabitable and desolateislandcalledNazino on theNazina River,western Siberia, wheretheywereforcedto fendforthemselves. Withfewmeansofsurvival, theysimply diedon thespotlikeflies, orfledtodie inthevastSiberiantaiga. Somesurvived byeatingtheir fellow deportees, dead oralive.Localsliving on theshoresoftheriver referred totheislandas theislandofcannibals.Hence thetitleofthebook. ...

Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag. Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity by Nicolas Werth , Jan T. Gross , Steven Rendall (review)

770 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2010 The lack of reflection of the capitalinvestedin Albania by the Italian government in the trade balance betweenthe two countriesis seen by Rosellias an important impulsethatpushedRome towards military actionin April1939.The changesinthemonetary system ofAlbaniaand theestablishmentof a fixedexchangerateof theAlbaniangoldenfranconlywiththe Italianlira,i.e. the formation of the 'lira area', and the growth of Italian exportsbroughtthe trade balance back into surplusforItaly. However, Rosellipointsoutsthatthisperiod£saw theFascistregime beingmoreheavyhandedin itscontrol ofthebanking system inAlbania5. RoselliconcludesthatItalywas hugelyinvolvedfinancially in Albania's economicdevelopment intheinterwar period.However, thiscontribution was dependenton military intentions and fieldslikehealthcare and education wereneglected. A by-product ofthisactivity wastheproblem ofthe'Albanian gold',i.e. thegold reserveof theNationalBank ofAlbania,lootedby the Germansin 1943,and depositedafter1945in theBank ofEngland.Roselli offers a thorough accountofthiscontroversial issuethatdefined therelations betweenAlbania, Italy and the UK duringthe post-WorldWar Two period. Roselli'sbook is a valuablesourceof data and an inspiring accountfor scholarsand specialists who deal withthe history of modernAlbania and theeconomichistory oftheBalkans.The authorfirmly concentrates on financial and economicissues,referring to othercomplementary workswhen a largerhistorical context is required, whichmaypose difficulties to a nonspecialized reader. In general,though,Roselli's studyis a noteworthy scholarly achievement. UCL SSEES RlGELS HaLILI Werth, Nicolas. Cannibal Island: Deathina Siberian Gulag. Witha foreword by Jan T. Gross.TranslatedfromtheFrenchby StevenRendali.Human Rights and Crimes Against Humanity.PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, NJand Oxford,2007.xxi + 223 pp. Glossary. Maps. Notes. $24.95:£14.95. Although deathisno stranger to Stalin'sSovietUnion,and thetermGulag, coinedbyAlexander Solzhenitsyn inhisGulag Archipelago, iswidely known, the present bookbyNicolasWerth,originally publishedin Frenchin 2006,is a shocking account.The centreofWerth'sgripping and gruesome story ofthe Gulag,looselydefined, is theNazino affair: in 1933thousands ofdeportees from theEuropeanpartoftheSovietUnionweredumpedon an uninhabitable and desolateislandcalledNazino on theNazina River,western Siberia, wheretheywereforcedto fendforthemselves. Withfewmeansofsurvival, theysimply diedon thespotlikeflies, orfledtodie inthevastSiberiantaiga. Somesurvived byeatingtheir fellow deportees, dead oralive.Localsliving on theshoresoftheriver referred totheislandas theislandofcannibals.Hence thetitleofthebook. REVIEWS 771 Even before1933deportations and deathswereubiquitousin the Soviet Union. From 1929 onwardsthe brutalcollectivization and dekulakization campaignsresultedin mass deportations and untolddeaths.In 1932-33a severefamine struck theSovietUnion(somecontendthattheSovietdictator IosifStalindeliberately causedthemassfamine inordertopunishrecalcitrant peasants), whichled to further deportations ofpeasants.To protect thecities fromhungry peasantswho had begun to ventureinto themin desperate searchoffood,Stalinintroduced a system ofinternal passports in thecities. The peasantswerenotgivenpassports, norwerenumerous urbanresidents whosesocial and politicalstandings werelow. These people,who included criminals, beggars,vagabonds,fugitive kulaksand peasants,formerly privilegedpeoplefrom thetsarist era(suchas former noblesand armyofficers) and other'déclassé'and 'marginal' elements, weredeprived offoodrationing and expelledfromthecities.Wheredid theygo? Some soughtout relations in thecountryside. Otherssoughtto escape thedragnet byanyand all means. The SovietSecretPolice,in orderto reinin thisalleged'riff-raff, deviseda grandioseand Utopianplan of deportation meantto colonizeinhospitable areasofSiberiaand otherremoteregions ofthecountry. Thesewerecalled'specialsettlements', a termdifferent from thenarrowlydefined Gulagorlabourcamps.In manyrespects, thespecialsettlements fared worsethanthelabourcamps.Ifthelabourcampshad a primitive infrastructureforensuring lifeand labour(theywerenotdeathcamps),mostspecial settlements had none.Moreover, mostoftheseformerly urbanresidents were unfamiliar with physical labourinthewilderness. In fact, amongthedeportees were numerouspeople who were pickedup by the police arbitrarily and accidentally (mostly to satisfy theneed to fillthe quota of deportations) as well as thosewho were utterly unfitforany labour (thesickand old, for instance). Even thoughthesettlers wereprovidedwitha modicumofprovisions (rawflour) forsurvival, therewereno facilities to cook or bake. Flour was summarily dumpedon thegroundto rot,and settlers ate itraw,fellsick and died. In theend,thegrandiose planfailed, and manysettlers weretransferred to labourcamps,eventhoughtheinstitution ofspecialsettlements did notdisappear. Werth'scareful accountoftheNazino affair is aidedbytheavailability of unusuallycompletedocumentation about thisparticularaffair.He draws extensively on documents frommanyarchives, including the former KGB archivein Moscow. In his concludingchapter,Werthlucidlyplaces the Nazino affairwithinthe wider contextof Stalinistpolitics.He assumes themodernnatureoftheSovietexperiment, yethe sees'malfunctions' ofthe Sovietsystem all around,especially at thestageofimplementation. He notes thatlocal officials were largelyignorant of the goals of Moscow's projects whichchangedfrequently, in anycase. The processofcreating a new,Soviet civilization ended up producing'decivilization': 'In Nazino, a modernizing Utopia ofpurifying and civilizing socialengineering undercompletecontrol paradoxically causeda wholenestofarchaisms to riseto thesurface. In this sense,thisepisodemirrored theStalinist vision - anditsreality - as a whole' (p. 180). 772 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO This shortyetextraordinarily richaccountofStalinist politicsand Soviet lifeshouldbe readwidely. Department ofHistory IndianaUniversity, Bloomington HlROAKI KUROMIYA Pavlowitch,Stevan K. Hitler's NewDisorder: TheSecondWorldWarin Yugoslavia. Hurstand Company,London,2008. xix + 333 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes.Chronology. Bibliography. Index.£25.00. In recentyears,severalstudieshave appeared which have enrichedour understanding of the complexhistory of theformer Yugoslaviaduringthe Second WorldWar. Some of theseworksare based on new researchthat examinesthelocal dynamics ofoccupation, collaboration, massmurder and resistance inBosnia-Herzegovina (MarkoAttila Hoare,TomislavDulie...

‘Crossing the Rubicon’: Strategic Planning or Neo-Biopower? A Critique of the Language of New Zealand's Early Childhood Strategic Plan

‘Strategy’ is a word that has had an increasing use in recent years. The discipline of organisational studies has adopted this concept to set out the primacy of good business practices, such as foretelling risk and opportunity. Government policy documents use the term where medium- and long-term goals are set out, for example, the New Zealand Ministry of Education's Pathways to the Future. A Ten-Year Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education. This article uses Michel Foucault's methodology of genealogy to trace the emergence of the term ‘strategy’, its use in organisational studies, and its displacement to education, specifically early childhood education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The study by Richard Whipp into the effectiveness of strategic planning supports the problematising of the term. The study deconstructs some naturalised truths about the image of people, of time, and of analysts' reflexivity. It asks about the use of terms that originated in the military lexicon, such as ‘manoeuvres’, ‘strategy’, ‘target’, ‘plan’ and ‘risk’, but have slipped to that of business practices, retaining traces, however, of the original military intent. Foucault inverted the phrase that ‘politics is war by any other means' as institutions centralised control, set up supervision of populations, and collected statistics to plot changed patterns. This article examines some of the tracery that remains in such use of governmental language, and asks if this is the most appropriate lexicon for education.

Why Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty

Abstract The reason why Ireland voted in a referendum on June 12th 2008 to reject the Lisbon Treaty was mainly due to the failure from Europe to articulate the overall justification for this strengthening of European powers in terms acceptable to the Irish, who hope for a federalist Europe, and don't trust the global military intentions of some of Europe's leaders. Most people were not canvassed door‐to‐door at all. Where there was a canvass it was generally against Lisbon, raising fears about threats to Irish neutrality, and of conscription, as well as about abortion, taxation, and the loss of an Irish Commissioner. While 51% of men voted in favour because of the perceived economic benefits, 56% of women voted against because of the perceived risks associated with a more powerful Europe. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Climate change and Zhou relocations in early Chinese history

In Chinese history, the development of the Zhou tribes and the dynasties that succeeded them between 3550 and 2200 BP in the middle reaches of the Yellow River is known as the period of ‘Five Relocations’. Most of these relocations appear to have been forced by the pressure of nomadic invasions and occupations from the northern steppe. Historians simply attributed these relocations to political and military causes. However, palaeoclimatic studies show that the Zhou tribes and their successor dynasties developed at the demise of the Holocene Climatic Optimum when regional climate became highly variable and unstable. An integrated analysis of environmental change over the Loess Plateau and the Mongolian steppe facilitates a credible understanding of the linkage between climatic events and these relocations. It indicates that the relocations caused an expansion or contraction of the settled regions over the drought-prone semi-arid lands. During climatic amelioration, dry farming societies pushed upward to the Loess Plateau where increased precipitation and soil moisture allowed cereals to be cultivated. When hit by droughts and the associated disasters, both the dry farming societies and the nomadic tribes had to move southward to find an environment suitable for their food production. Migration and relocation were, therefore, basic strategies to secure the resources necessary to sustain an agricultural economy. The settled frontier was pulled back as dry farming societies from the upland plateau retreated to the lowland riverbanks of the Guanzhong Basin. Even though there were political and military intentions, climatic events played an essential role in the relocations of the Zhou tribes and the successive dynasties.

La dynamique de la stratégie nucléaire américaine de contreforce

This article examines the growth of the American nuclear strategy of counterforce, by investigating three factors which contributed to its successful development in the first Reagan administration. These factors are: first, the excessive worst-case forecasting of policy-makers in dealing with Moscow's military intentions and capabilities ; secondly, the technological hard-sell of the idea that "star wars" defenses in the future might protect the U.S. from a Soviet nuclear attack; and finally, the bureaucratic momentum of military demands for more weapons to satisfy organizational interests and the ideology of offense.

Who killed Clemens Kapuuo?

On Easter Monday 1978, Clemens Kapuuo, the paramount chief of the Ovaherero and leader of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Windhoek. Although it never claimed credit for the assassination, the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was blamed for the killing. Shortly thereafter, on Ascension Day, the largest military operation undertaken by South Africa since the Second World War, Operation Reindeer, was launched. South African forces attacked targets deep inside Angola and over 1,200 people were killed in a SWAPO camp that had been established at Kassinga. As justification for Operation Reindeer, the South African government referred to a number of incidents, of which the murder of Kapuuo was the most important. Based on a wide variety of archival, oral, and printed sources, the article seeks to situate the killing of Kapuuo. It traces the career of Kapuuo in conjunction with political developments within Namibia between 1971 and 1978. It demonstrates that throughout his political career, Clemens Kapuuo refused to compromise on a number of conditions relating to the political future of Namibia. In conclusion, the article argues that it is possible that Kapuuo was murdered by elements of the South African military intent on strengthening their hold on Namibia and South Africa at the time.

Flexibility or Irrelevance: Ways Forward for the ARF

The Evolving Security Environment Whether ripe for rivalry or simply witnessing the ripening of divergent national viewpoints, the Asia-Pacific will undergo potentially dramatic and unpredictable developments in the coming decades. The litany of potential problems and flashpoints is by now familiar: uneven economic development across and within states; regime instability and pressures for political reform; full-fledged military confrontation on the Korean peninsula, punctuated by military probings and, more recently, missile or attempted satellite launches; clashing interests and occasional military fire over claims in the Spratlys; major arms purchases throughout Southeast Asia in a context of suspicion and unclear military intent; historical enmities unresolved, particularly in Northeast Asia; and the growing military might of a potential hegemon with unclear bounds on its strategic interests.(1) After several years of gestation, the Regional Forum (ARF) was formally launched in 1994 to deal explicitly with issues affecting regional security. The was born in part as a rejection of a European model of security that is based on a combination of great-power politics and legalistic institutionalism. Instead, the embraced the ASEAN Way of dealing with conflicts of interest - discussion and dialogue to seek out the matters acceptable to all involved parties. An extraordinary number of dialogues have commenced. Working groups have been convened on confidence-building measures (CBMs), preventive diplomacy, and conflict resolution, which also comprise the three stages through which the regional security dialogue is supposed to progress. Major statements of policy have been accepted on the issue of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Membership has expanded to include virtually all regional actors as well as the world's major powers and political groupings, reaching to Europe. Yet there is an incongruity between the assumptions and processes of the ARF, on the one hand, and the nature of some of the security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region, on the other. On the most fundamental level, the wide variety of threats to stability - in their origins, intensity, and likely maturation - decreases the likelihood that an essentially unitary approach to security can successfully manage all of them. Looking more closely at the kinds of hard decisions and choices that are necessary to solve some of these conflicts, one can conclude that identity-building by itself will not address such realities. Failure to resolve emerging conflicts incurs two very serious risks for the ARF. First, it will appear irrelevant should it become bogged down in preliminary CBM discussions without ever tackling serious conflicts of interest or threatening behaviour. The progress that is made in identity-building will then mistakenly appear to be erroneous or even harmful. Secondly, the could find itself overtaken by longer-term and irreversible trends, such as Chinese power projection or simply China's growing presence, which the chooses to sweep under the rug on a meeting-by-meeting and dialogue-by-dialogue basis. In order to thrive, then, the ASEAN Way of unanimity, informality, and low-profile dialogue, and the ARF Path of moving sequentially from trust to conflict prevention and then conflict resolution must be transformed into a strategy for dealing with concrete problems in the near term. This will require breaking with the ARF's traditions of unanimity and consensus-building. It requires sub-regional and bilateral arrangements. It will necessitate the refocusing of energy away from CBMs and promises of future progress on preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution and towards specific problems requiring hard political choices and deadlines. In sum, the would continue to perform long-term identity-, network-, and consensus-building, but it would actively sanction smaller groupings of states that would take the initiative on more pressing security challenges. …

China's military posture and the new economic geopolitics

China's increasing energy needs have underscored four questions concerning Beijing's military posture and strategic intentions. How will China guarantee its most vital sources of energy supply, especially those that depend on the free flow of goods through international shipping routes? Does China possess the naval capability to secure sea-lines of communication? Is such a capability at the centre of its future naval planning? Can China's missile capabilities be used to intimidate international shipping? The link between China's historic use of force and resource considerations is tenuous. The particular case of the South China Sea has been inflated by many analysts into a more significant case study of Chinese strategic behaviour than it actually merits. Chinese strategic interests in resource supply are not incompatible with US hegemony. Indeed, an American draw-down in the Pacific is a greater threat to the stability of Asia's energy markets than any potential Chinese challenge to the status quo.